Loss to Congo emphasized Uganda’s attacking glitches

Another game for the Uganda Cranes started and ended with no goal registered.

The Cranes fell 1-0 to DR Congo in a friendly game aimed at fine-tuning the team for Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers clash with Algeria.

Questions will continue to be asked as to where Uganda’s goals will come from if the team is to put up a late push for a place in the finals.

And at the moment, that question cannot be answered sufficiently.

Uganda’s offensive inabilities were yet again on display as the team struggled to create and put away chances.

The best chance of the game fell to substitute Milton Karisa, who had the goal at his mercy but placed the ball right into the goalkeeper’s hands.

The Vipers’ winger was in a position where it was harder to miss than to score but chose the more complicated option.

Theo Bongoda’s goal came in the 26th minute of the game, and the Cranes had time to make amends, but the forward line continues to fire blanks.

Team captain Emmanuel Okwi led the search for goals with Fahad Bayo, but the two were taken off with no significant impact made in the final third.

Moses Waiswa, Karisa, Richard Basangwa and Travis Mutyaba came on in the second half and had flashes but with no final product in front of the Congo goal.

Basangwa set up Karisa for the miss of the day while Mutyaba had the Congolese backline worried for a moment.

Football matches are won by scoring goals, and that is the Cranes’ most significant challenge at the moment.

Just two goals scored in four games is not a good return. And if Wednesday’s match was supposed to paint a picture of what to expect on Sunday, the worrying signs remain.

There is no sure source of goals in the team at the moment, that’s for sure.

Okwi and Bayo, Uganda’s trusted pair upfront, are running out of games to score their first goals of the qualifiers.

Rogers Mato’s goal against Tanzania kept the Cranes on course, and more of that will be required against Algeria and Niger in the last two matches.